A cracked screen should cost $0. Here's when it doesn't.

The route, as published

• Verizon: $0 deductible screen/back-glass repair for eligible smartphones, by an Asurion-certified tech (uBreakiFix stores, in-home, or mail-in); repairs carry a 12-month warranty. If the device is not repair-eligible, the claim converts to replacement.
• AT&T: $0 service fee for screen/back-glass repair on eligible devices under the current Protect Advantage program. (Older enrollment? The 2021 brochure priced cracked-screen repair at $29 — check your era.)
• T-Mobile: eligible screens route to repair under Protection 360; our research did not verify a published fee, so yours is in your documents — ask for the repair route by name before accepting any replacement quote.

One disclosure from the terms themselves: repairs may use new or refurbished parts, including non-original manufacturer parts, and may void the manufacturer warranty. On a phone still under its maker's warranty, that trade is worth one question before you book the repair.

The conversion — where the money moves

"Not eligible for repair" is a ruling, and rulings have bases: the device model, the damage pattern (a bent frame beside the crack), parts availability, or repair capacity in your area. Bases differ in what you can do about them:

• Capacity ("no appointments") → ask for the next slot, a different location, or the mail-in route before accepting replacement.
• Damage pattern → get the specific damage named in writing; a crack plus a claimed frame bend is checkable by any local shop in five minutes.
• Model → the least arguable basis; if it's wrong about your model, it's a record error and correctable.

What you must not do is accept the conversion silently: an accepted replacement is recorded as a replacement claim — deductible charged, claim slot spent — and is very hard to unwind afterward.

Repair or replace: choosing deliberately

Repair keeps your phone — your data stays put, no refurb lottery, no non-return clock. Replacement resets the device but rolls the dice described on the bad-refurb page and starts the return clock for your broken phone. When both are genuinely offered, repair is usually the better instrument. When only replacement is offered, the deductible table and the bad-deal math decide whether the claim is worth filing at all.